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Government defends Huawei broadband deal

National have allowed Chinese company Huawei to have South Island contracts for the rollout of the new ultra-fast broadband network, along with contracts with 2Degrees Mobile and Vodafone.This company has been forbidden from getting broadband contracts in Australia and the US, due to concerns over spying and cyber attacks.

The Chinese government is well known to fund and train hackers for the purposes of spying and cyber warfare, so much that they are masters in this field.Even if there was no risk of spying or cyber attacks, there would still be the issue of profit flowing offshore, but New Zealand has no fear over a Chinese company holding New Zealand telco contracts - despite being banned in Australia and the United States.
Telecommunications giant Huawei has South Island contracts for the rollout of the new ultra-fast broadband network, along with contracts with 2Degrees Mobile and Vodafone.The company was told late last year it couldn't tender for Australia's national broadband network contracts because of security concerns about the potential for spying or cyber attacks emanating from China.The United States is reported to have taken similar action.

But Communications Minister Amy Adams says the government is comfortable with the broadband contract, which was awarded before other countries made their concerns public."We do take the security of our networks extremely seriously and I'm very confident we have robust processes in place to deal with those concerns as they're brought to our attention," she told Radio New Zealand.Huawei was also rolling out new broadband networks in Singapore and Britain, she said.

Ms Adams would not say whether the government would review the contract, instead saying: "We do have very good streams of intelligence that come to us and I'm very confident in relying on those information streams that we get."Huawei is also involved with a group which has proposed to build a new communications cable from Sydney to Auckland, but Ms Adams would not comment specifically on whether there were specific concerns about that project.The Greens have asked parliament's intelligence and security committee to hold an inquiry into Huawei's involvement in the broadband rollout but ministers have rejected the idea.

MP Gareth Hughes believes that is because the government is afraid of offending the Chinese government.Labour's Clare Curran, who asked questions in parliament on Tuesday, says ministers are stonewalling."The Australians are considered to be a partner in terms of our security and intelligence relationships. If they are concerned enough to ban Huawei from bidding for the broadband contract, why has New Zealand allowed three taxpayer-funded contracts to go ahead without a more robust probe?"